Annual Reports – Full Time

Article 12 of the MRFA Collective Agreement is called “Performance Review of Employees With Academic Rank” [insert link to CA]. Article 12 describes the contractual obligations of the annual report requirement; it also details some of the important characteristics and distinctions that you need to know if you have “academic rank.” These characteristics and distinctions of the annual report include the following:

• it is both “formative” and “summative”
• it needs to be submitted every year by the first Tuesday in September
• the “activities and achievements” you need to submit will depend on what kind of unit you work in
• where appropriate, the “activities and achievements” you need to submit will depend on whether you are on the “TS” or “TSS” work pattern
• how your annual reports are used will depend on your current employment status (i.e., tenured, tenurable, conditional tenurable, limited term)

We currently use the “Online Faculty Annual Reporting System” (12.1.1.1) [insert link to http://annualreports.mtroyal.ca]. The information you input to the online system can be used by MRU for multiple purposes, as described in Appendix B of the Collective Agreement. These purposes include:

• most importantly, to record your activities and achievements for your annual review (performed primarily by your Dean or equivalent). The reporting system is designed to align with the Mount Royal University Institutional Tenure and Promotion Criteria.
• where relevant, to support your tenure or promotion process
• where relevant, to support your own applications for internal or external funding
• to make impersonal, aggregate data available for the purposes of mandatory reporting to government and external agencies. The most notable of these agencies is the Campus Alberta Quality Council (CAQC) [insert link to https://caqc.alberta.ca].

The online Faculty Annual Reporting System is, to a large extent, structured and organized to meet the requirements of the CAQC. Because CAQC requires very specific and limited forms of aggregate data, the online Annual Reporting System can seem restrictive—even confusing—to some faculty. Mount Royal’s transformation from college to university was guided by inclusive, expansive definitions of both “scholarship” and “teaching,” which is why the legal language that frames the annual report is also inclusive and expansive: “activities and achievements.”

It is important to note, then, that your “activities and achievements” in teaching, scholarship and service are not necessarily well represented by the restrictive format of the online Annual Reporting System: there are many activities and achievements that “count” at MRU, and you may not find a user-friendly field for all of them. This does not mean that your activities and achievements—as appropriate to your own plans for teaching and scholarship—are of lesser value or importance than the standardized activities used by CACQ. It just means that there is not a tidy fit between two distinct purposes and destinations for your annual report data. You should consult your Dean, Director, Chair or Faculty Tenure Committee if you are worried; they will be able to supply you with a clear account of what matters most for your own career path.

How do you actually complete your annual report? An efficient portal is your MyMRU page. Log in, and follow these steps:

1. Click the “faculty” tab on the banner
2. Near the bottom of the Faculty page, on the right, is a box called “Professional Development and Reporting”
3. Click the first bullet, “Annual Reporting System”
4. Sign in
5. You will be greeted by your Profile. If necessary, use the drop-down menus to complete your profile, and hit the green “save” icon
6. Click “Annual Report” on the banner
7. You will be greeted by “Faculty Annual Report: Instructions”
8. Simply follow the instructions clicking “Save and Next” whenever appropriate
9. “Save and Next” will take you sequentially through each necessary category

You may find the “Scholarship” section especially limiting. Even “Other Peer Reviewed Scholarly Activity” may not fit your own scholarly plan if you engage in unconventional, hybrid, or non-traditional forms of research and dissemination. For all activities that don’t fit clearly in the available sections, use “Other Scholarship Activities” at the bottom of the page. This section does not use drop-down menus; you may describe your activities in as much detail, and with as much supplementary or qualifying information, as you think necessary.

Please note that “peer review” and “juried” are open terms at MRU, with a fair amount of latitude. We are not founded on the same scholarly definitions, principles and assumptions as are “Research Intensive Universities”; rather, we are founded on principles appropriate to “Teaching Intensive Universities,” as described, for example, by Ernest L. Boyer

If you are curious or concerned about what constitutes valid scholarship in your own faculty or department, or how various forms of scholarship are prioritized, or if certain forms are not recognized, talk to your Dean or Faculty Tenure Committee. They should be able to provide you with clear directions, formalized in an official, relevant document or set of documents. If you have further concerns, contact the MRFA.

Finally, Article 12.1.1.2 requires that you attach a current curriculum vitae to the Faculty Annual Report. You have the option of using the CV function built into the Annual Report System, however, the format of that CV is very crude. If you plan to update your CV for any other purpose (e.g., applying for any internal or external grants) you may want to just attach your own CV.

Also important to note is that, for those faculty on the Teaching-Scholarship-Service (TSS) pattern, you will be required to attach a scholarship plan to your annual report every third year (Article 12.1.1.3 of the Collective Agreement). Putting your scholarship plans in writing does not mean that it is etched in stone. The scholarship plan simply indicates that you have given thought as to how you plan to meet the scholarship criteria in the upcoming years. Changes to the scholarship plan are acceptable.